Honor Lost: Love and death in modern-day Jordan

I'd always believed that we'd spend our lives together...I never dreamed that my time with her would be cut short, or that my life would be a journey down this path, but I realize that she left me with a mission...I must find a way to make all Arab women's silent cries for justice and freedom heard around the world.

Dalia was a young, beautiful Arabian Muslim living with her family in Amman, Jordan. At the age of twenty-five, she unexpectedly fell in love with Michael, a major in the Royal Army, and a Catholic. For a Muslim woman, any relationship with a Catholic man is forbidden, and Dalia was only too aware that flouting this rule could cost her her life.

But they were deeply in love, and with the help of Dalia's lifelong friend, Norma, with whom she ran a hair salon, they went to extraordinary lengths to meet in secret. Dalia and Michael were only alone on a handful of occasions, and their relationship remained entirely chaste. Although they covered their tracks meticulously, one of Dalia's brothers became suspicious and she was suddenly gripped by the terrifying reality of what might happen to them all.

Norma Khouri's book is a gift to the memory of her friend. In it she recounts a powerful love story that ends in an appalling tragedy, and also attempts to bring to the world's attention the continuing practice of honor killing in Jordan -- an ancient tradition that encourages the murder of women considered to have dishonored their families. It is a crime that effectively goes unpunished.

Shocking and dramatic, Honor Lost will strike a chord with women everywhere and is a testimony to the courage and strength of women who are prepared to defy generations of male dominance.